Rune Factory 5
Image: Marvelous (XSEED)

The latest Nintendo Download update for Europe has arrived, and it's bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!

Switch Retail eShop - New Releases

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo, 25th Mar, £49.99 / €59.99) - Take control of the powerful pink puffball, Kirby, and move around freely in 3D stages as you discover a mysterious world with abandoned structures from a past civilization—like a shopping mall? ! Copy enemies’ abilities like Sword and Ice and use them to attack and explore your surroundings! What journey awaits Kirby? Take a deep breath and get ready for an unforgettable adventure! Join Kirby in an unforgettable journey on a delightful 3D platforming adventure Explore a mysterious world with abandoned structures, remnants of a past civilization Copy enemies’ abilities and use them to attack and explore - Read our Kirby and the Forgotten Land review

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Rune Factory 5 (Marvelous Europe, 25th Mar, £44.99 / €53.99) - In the sleepy border town of Rigbarth, mysterious events are unfolding, affecting the runes that govern the balance between humanity and nature… As the newest ranger for the peacekeeping organisation, SEED, protect the frontier town by rounding up rowdy monsters with your official SEED-issued spell seal. When not on a mission, work with the people of Rigbarth to help the town flourish through farming, festivals and friendships! As the balance of peace begins to shift, however, it comes time to prove yourself. Team up with townsfolk and embark on a grand adventure to unravel the mystery befalling the land, embracing your inner-power to halt the descent into chaos. Fast-paced action RPG combat Venture into the vast, vibrant wilderness with friends from Rigbarth by your side to unlock powerful and stylish link attacks that encourage teamwork and strategy. - Read our Rune Factory 5 review

Switch eShop - New Releases

A Place for the Unwilling (Parallel Circles, 22nd Mar, £10.79 / €11.99) - A branching narrative adventure set in the final 21 days of a dying city. Every decision you make will shape your surroundings, and the city’s fate. However, the clock is ticking - and the city carries on, with or without you. Speak to everyone from eerie politicians to chain-smoking child anarchists. Work as a trader, socialise, explore the town freely, and play a role in the city’s hierarchy. Combining exquisite narrative depth and exploration with a curious setup - plus a dash of Lovecraft - A Place for the Unwilling is a rich narrative experience where player choices really do count, set in a Dickensian world of colour and Eldritch nightmares.

Aery - Calm Mind 2 (EpiXR, 24th Mar, £9.99 / €9.99) - Aery - Calm Mind 2 is an interactive game experience that is designed to relax your mind and soul. You jump into the role of a little bird, explore beautiful landscapes and collect magical crystals that mark certain landscapes. Because there are no enemies or any other danger in this game you will be able to lean back and enjoy the scenery and the sensation of flying. It is a great game for relaxing and calming down after an exhausting day full of hassle. Of course, you can always select the level that you feel helps most to relax yourself. Most levels can be finished quite quickly so that you can freely choose spend time exploring the environment but you don’t have to stay for too long if you are just looking for a short moment of peace and enjoyment. This game features a collection of some the most beautiful sceneries from the Aery franchise. We hope you like them. So lean back and take a deep breath…

Andro Dunos 2 (JUST FOR GAMES, 24th Mar, £17.99 / €19.99) - The sequel of the famous Shoot'em up from the Visco studio is back, 20 years after the first opus, released in 1992. It's time to bring out your good old battle ship in ANDRO DUNOS 2! Andro Dunos (アンドロデュノス, in Japanese) is a horizontal scrolling arcade game of the shoot 'em up (shmup) family.

BouncyBoi in Puzzle Land (Twin-Stick, 25th Mar, £10.95 / €12.95) - Bounce into this colorful and cartoony world with BouncyBoi and adventure through various levels filled with challenging puzzles, cute graphics and funky beats! You are BouncyBoi. A purple bouncy slime who loves to jive and solve puzzles, making his way through Puzzle Land with good music, great visuals and fun times!

Broken Pipe (DillyFrame, 24th Mar, £3.23 / €3.59) - All the stream tanks that manage gates and bridges in this world are now broken. Local robots are bound to the broken modules and cannot escape from this place. Return missing modules to the pipe schemes to restore the stream. You will have to direct the color stream from one tank to another in order to make them work. When all the tanks work all the robots will be able to leave this world.

Bunny Memory (DillyFrame, 23rd Mar, £1.89 / €2.1) - The astronaut bunny sent on a journey wandered in space for so long that they completely forgot everything. Collect memory points and train your memory, helping the bunny unlock fragments of memories.

Chippy (Facepunch Studios, 23rd Mar, £17.99 / €19.99) - Your purpose is to eliminate all pixel-based lifeforms by breaking off their limbs and destroying their cores. Compete to be fastest on the leaderboards, watch replays from other players to learn their tricks, or team up with a friend in local co-op.

Devastator (2Awesome Studio, 25th Mar, £4.99 / €4.99) - Devastator is a retro-inspired arcade twin-stick shooter designed for modern systems. Everything from the visuals, audio, and gameplay was designed, tweaked and polished to create the most intense and satisfying twin-stick shooter experience possible. SYSTEM initializing. . . Multiple virus infections detected. . . Launching DEVASTATOR program. . . You are the Devastator! Your objective is to eradicate 15 types of viruses in 3 unique modes: Quadrants, Sectors, and Cycles. In Quadrants, the wave layout is constantly changing as you battle increasingly intense waves of random viruses for 5 minutes. In Sectors, there are 55 unique waves of viruses across 5 sectors. And, in Cycles, you'll battle semi-randomized spawning viruses across 5 variations of 11 waves. Complete your objective as the Devastator and take back control of the System!

Disco Cannon Airlines (RandomSpin Games, 24th Mar, £0.89 / €0.99) - - Shoot a character from cannon in the sky. - Move a player and hit items to earn point and boost player higher in the sky. - Get the points from kicking airplanes, cows, and trampolines. Try to reach as much points as possible.

Kraken Academy!! (Fellow Traveller, 22nd Mar, £12.79 / €13.59) - Welcome to Kraken Academy. Kraken Academy is no ordinary high school. Ghosts fill the art department, cultists meet below the monkey bars and now crocodiles are eating children. Join forces with a magical Kraken to uncover the Traitor, a malevolent mastermind, who could be anyone at the school. With each time loop you’ll get closer to saving Kraken Academy. Explore & Investigate While saving the world is definitely an important goal there's a whole range of other activities to dive into.

Mini Words Collection (QUByte Interactive, 24th Mar, £2.69 / €2.99) - Mini Words Collection is a compilation of three games that will help the player improve their language skill, discovering more words and practicing their vocabulary in a fun way! Each game has a unique style of teaching the player some new words in a lot of different languages.

Niko and the Cubic Curse (Pix Arts, 25th Mar, £4.99 / €4.99) - Niko and the Cubic Curse is a 2D Platformer where you must jump, fight, and collect to uncover the mystery of everyone’s new shape-like appearances! Play as Niko, a human who has reawaken to his new square body. He is informed that everyone in the world has been cursed, and it is up to him to find the cause and bring an end to this nightmare!

Sky Gamblers - Air Supremacy 2 (Atypical Games, 24th Mar, £26.99 / €29.99) - THIS IS THE ULTIMATE JET FIGHTER COMBAT GAME! With an extensive single-player campaign and delightful multiplayer modes, the non-stop action will keep you at the edge of your seat! Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy 2 is a dogfight simulator taking its roots from the original classic hit. Rich combat mechanics and a spot-on balance between simulation and arcade make it accessible to all player types and allows for a personalized experience with varied control schemes and play styles. The single-player campaign takes the player into a dark and grim future where air supremacy is all that prevents the world balance of power from collapsing.

SUPER NANARU (CFK, 24th Mar, £6.47 / €7.19) - One day, a devil named Yako was sealed away for causing a ruckus in town. But after only half an hour, Yako is on the loose again, brainwashing people to begin another rampage! Soon, the baker girl, Nanaru, sees her entire stock of bread raided by Yako's brainwashed mob... "I can't just stand here and do nothing!" Nanaru decides to get back her bread and save the town. So begins Nanaru's journey to teach a lesson to Yako, the troublesome devil!

Taqoban (Ratalaika Games, 25th Mar, £4.99 / €4.99) - Play as Tao or Xiang, two pandas, and help them organize their boxes as efficiently as possible to earn a maximum of bamboos! You'll need a lot of thinking skills in this mix of sliding game and classic puzzle platformer, to solve the levels of increasing difficulty. Also, with 12 cooperative levels to play with a friend. Slide parts of the level to create new paths for your panda and get the box to its place. But be careful with the number of movements, you can obtain the precious golden bamboo or make your little panda cry.

Tempest 4000 (Atari, 24th Mar, £16 / €17.99) - Developed by legendary game designer, Jeff Minter, Tempest 4000 remains faithful to the original fast-paced gameplay by putting you in control of the Claw, a powerful spacecraft equipped to destroy deadly creatures and other obstructions with rapid-fire shots on vibrant geometric prisms. Featuring fantastical graphical environments, 100 levels, three game modes, and more, you must eliminate all enemies as fast as possible to survive and compete for the highest score on the leaderboards.

The Pizza Delivery Boy Who Saved the World (Penguin Pop Games, 23rd Mar, £5.39 / €5.99) - "Look, in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's the delivery guy with double pepperoni and sausage! We're saved!" It's not easy delivering pizzas for a living. My boss is a jerk, my co-workers all think I'm super-old because I'm in my 20s, and the customers... well, let's say they can be rather, umm, zesty. Like the person who doesn't know their own address. Or the guy on 12th Avenue who answers the door wearing nothing but a smile. I don't care how many abs you have, dude; that's not okay! So when a scruffy-looking guy shows up, claiming to be me from the future? Yeah, it's easy to just brush him off... Until it isn't, and I'm being hunted down by an organization with an unhealthy fixation on cat experimentation. But we'll get to that. For now, rest assured: your pizza IS on its way—and it's coming with a side order of righteousness!

Thunder Kid: Hunt for the Robot Emperor (eastasiasoft, 23rd Mar, £5.59 / €6.39) - In the year 201X, war has already ravaged much of the continent when a rogue AI rebels against its creators and leads an army of robots to conquer the portion of North America known as the Robot Empire. Trained from a young age as an agent of justice, Thunder Kid is sent into battle against the Robot Royalty and stop the empire from taking over the world!

Ultreïa (RedDeerGames, 25th Mar, £11.99 / €12.99) - The great loss raises questions - why are we here when everything is coming to an inevitable end? Our little robot protagonist called Nymo has just lost his father and he asks himself these questions. As a pilgrim, you will lead his journey, which is supposed to bring you closer to the meaning of being but also seek out and take revenge on the killer of your guardian.

Valis II (Edia, 24th Mar, £10.97 / €12.15) - The side-scrolling bishojo action game series "Valis", which was first released in the 80s and gained popularity, celebrated its 35th anniversary in December 2021. This title, "Valis II" reveals the truth behind all the mysteries of the first game and provides a new selection of weapons and armor. This game provides six stages in total, each with their share of story cutscenes and gameplay action scenes.

Valis III (Edia, 24th Mar, £10.97 / €12.15) - This title, "Valis III" offers a selection of visual cutscenes as well as three playable characters, each with unique fighting styles and magic.

Valis: The Fantasm Soldier (Edia, 24th Mar, £10.97 / €12.15) - This title, "Valis: The Fantasm Soldier" was last released on for PC Engine. in 1992. It is considered a pioneer "bishojo," or pretty girl, game with full voices and animation.

World Soccer Kid (Game Museum, 24th Mar, £2.5 / €2.00) - The rules of World Soccer Kid are very simple. Move Soccer Kid to juggle the ball with your head. But the further from the center of the head the ball hits, the further the ball moves, making it hard to juggle. There are 4 modes that use these simple rules. Basic Mode where the number of juggles is recorded, Running Mode where the distance moved while juggling is recorded, Two-Player Mode where you compete against an opponent to juggle the ball the longest, and Two-Player Coop Mode where you work together to record how many times you can juggle the ball. Practice hard and try to become the best Soccer Kid in the world!

Switch eShop - Demos

Dream House Days DX

DLC / Add-On Content

Nintendo Switch

What will you be downloading this week?

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So that's your lot for this week's Nintendo Download. Go on, be a sport and drop a vote in the poll above, and comment below with your hot picks!